Trade in scam

[user9Cf6R0vrvi]

I bought my s25 ultra at the end of January and sent in my trade in at the beginning of February, my trade in was an s24 ultra in perfect condition no cracks or scratches. Thought everything would go smoothly as I have traded in several phones over the years, I upgrade every year to the newest galaxy and have never had an issue, that is until now, I get an email on July 7th 2025 that my phone did not meet the criteria and did not power on or bad display they said. They had my phone for months I thought, maybe they damaged it I said, so they give me 2 options they return it and get charged $900, or they recycle it and get charged the $900, i selected return it, I know that phone was in perfect condition, I get it back july 11 2025, I put it on the charger, it turned right on the phone works perfectly, now did they turn it on when they recieved it and it died? They have had it for months, why did it take so long for them to get back to me? Did they just do the bait and switch in me tell me they offer a good trade in value to buy the new phone then tell me the phone I sent in is no good? I will probably never know what really happened, all I do know is I can not trust the samsung trade in process and neither should you, now I have to pay an additional $900 and try to resale the trade in phone they kept for months and resale value has gone down on. Thanks samsung. Has anyone else ran into this issue?

[Bluntzy]

I did experience something similar a while ago. I sent him a Note9 I believe it was, and they said, I sent in an iPhone mind you. I never own an iPhone in my life.
I checked and that iPhone was worthless. So yeah, the trade, which was around $300 at the time. Did not work at all. So I had to pay full price for the phone

[Mujibar]

The biggest problem with the trade-in process is the third party that Samsung uses to evaluate devices (Hyla Mobile). You will find plenty of bad experiences on the internet. Any denial of trade-in should be immediately reported to Samsung customer service.

It's a hard lesson to learn, but there are things you can do to protect yourself from being taken advantage of. Take pics or video of the device's condition prior to sending it in, including showing that it was factory reset. Photo/video document the packaging process. Make sure you have all tracking info, including evidence of it being received.

As already mentioned, if your trade-in gets denied, contact Samsung customer service immediately. Tell them you can provide proof of what you sent in. If the reason for trade-in denial is the claim that you sent in an empty box (this happened to me), tell Samsung you want to see the video of your package being opened. Videos of all devices being evaluated are required to be maintained.

[A42YearOldArab]

Have they been using them for a while? I never personally had an issue, but if this is something new it would be good for more people to know the risk.

[Mujibar]

They've been using Hyla at least as long as I've done trade-ins, which is probably 10 years.

[A42YearOldArab]

Interesting, I wonder if it makes a difference what part of the world you are trading in from for whatever unknown reason to us.

[Mujibar]

This is strictly in the US. I don't know what other partners Samsung uses worldwide.

[Robin621k]

This has happened to me 3 times, I gotten taken care of 3 times.

3 times I have had to call, it was past the 21 days, if it is not evaluated in 21 business days of receiving they look at the video of it being opened. They tell you it is completed.

[Robin621k]

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Galaxy-S22/Trade-in-EMPTY-BOX/td-p/2721554?src=ShareByUserCM

[Tom6068]

Also, as I never had this issue, but I also packaged my return at the the shipper's location after I did all of my prep info at home.  Once at the shipper, I then video record the phone having already been reset, working turning off an on, wipe away smudges and moving it in angles with the light that would reveal blemishes etc, then packaging all done at the shipper location. I then use tamper evident tape while recording the packaging then send it on its way.